


the key to understanding one's potential is understanding one's limits

by iimpavid



Series: Peter Nureyev's Alias Catalog [2]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Hope, Imagery, Original Character(s), Peter Nureyev's Alias Catalog, Space Flight, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:34:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24065152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iimpavid/pseuds/iimpavid
Summary: "Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look."Another peek into Peter's history, that's all.
Series: Peter Nureyev's Alias Catalog [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716670
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	the key to understanding one's potential is understanding one's limits

**Author's Note:**

> There is nothing wrong with applying Shakespeare to podcast fanfic and I will eat anyone who tells me otherwise.

You’re on the leisure deck of some galactic-class starliner. It has a name that you’ve forgotten because you’re travelling on a mafia princess’s dime. You’ve been upgraded from mule to bodyguard and you’re not yet as nimble with names and faces as you’ll grow to be-- not that anyone here can tell the difference. 

It’s a city unto itself, the ship. Complete with class divides and politics even though the time between ports is shorter than two weeks. It’s human nature to find things to squabble over. You’re more concerned with wandering the various and sundry jewelry shops and making sure your pockets are heavier when you leave than when you arrived. 

Not tonight, though, because you’ve been hired to attend this little cocktail hour. This particular leisure deck is for those too far above first class and the filthy rich are milling about discussing whatever inanities fill their days. They don’t know or care who you are. They might as well not see you. 

And none of that is important. None of it.

Because to the port side the whole sky is taken up by Neptune’s expanse of blue, glittering ice so thick and bright you have no trouble believing the legends: that there are whole palaces of diamondese littered below its surface like holes in Swiss cheese. The history radiates stronger than reflected sunlight.

The starboard side, though, is the view that changes lives. The view that changes your life.

There’s nothing there but the void. Beyond the void is the rest of the Milky Way, dense with stars like sand grains sparkling brighter than lit entherium crystals and each one is a slightly different shade. As you’re looking at all those stars you’re struck by the knowledge that there are countless worlds between them. Worlds full of people you’ve never met speaking languages you’ve never heard. Beyond them there are more worlds still that are uninhabited entirely--

You’re standing on the leisure deck of a starliner aware all at once of the endlessness of space. The only thing stopping you is-- your only limit is defined by-- the resourcefulness you can muster in a room full of people with more money than sense.

Then you realize: you're _hungry_.


End file.
